06 May, 2026
Announcing the Irish Writers Centre 2026 Pride Programme
This year, the Irish Writers Centre celebrates Pride Month with a host of diverse creative events for the LGBTQIA+ community and allies.
We’ll get started on Thursday, 4th June with Writing Queer Irish Womanhood, a conversation between writers Katherine O’Donnell and Rosamund Taylor exploring the diversity and complexity of queer Irish women’s stories. This online event (7-8pm via Zoom) is designed to increase accessibility to all who are interested in attending.
On Saturday 6th June, artist Mel Galley will lead a Queer Futures Zine Workshop at our home on Parnell Square (12-2pm.) Open to all levels, this session invites attendees to imagine queer futurities through zine making and bookbinding techniques, combining text and image into speculative, self-made pamphlets.
We’ll close out our Pride celebrations on Tuesday, 16th June with Beyond Blooming: An Open Page Reading Night & Celebration of Queer Ireland. Hosted by Open Page Writers Group, this special open mic night brings together Bloomsday and Pride for an evening of live readings.
Recognising the importance of Pride throughout the year, we’ll continue our LGBTQIA+ programming by adding queer creative writing courses to our Academy. This October June Caldwell will run a Queer Short Story course and Gavin McCrea will facilitate a course titled: The Queer Self. Booking will open for these courses roughly 6 weeks in advance, so keep an eye out or sign up to our newsletter here.
We would like to thank Dublin City Council for their support in making this programming possible.
More information and booking for our Pride Month programme is available below. We look forward to celebrating Pride with you at the Irish Writers Centre this June!
Writing Queer Irish Womanhood: Katherine O’Donnell & Rosamund Taylor in Conversation – Thursday 4 June, 7-8pm. (€10/€9 IWC Members)
Join writer and academic Katherine O’Donnell in conversation with award-winning poet and writer Rosamund Taylor for an exploration of writing queer Irish Womanhood; past, present, and future. Katherine’s debut novel Slant (New Island Books) takes place between the peak of the 1980s/90s AIDS crisis and Ireland’s Marriage Referendum in 2015. Rosamund’s novel-in-verse Filly (Banshee Press) explores ‘sexual awakening, masochistic love, and the transformative possibilities of community’ (Banshee), in the tense atmosphere of an early-2000s Irish secondary school.
With works covering the span of three decades, these two writers are perfectly placed to uncover how Irish queer women’s stories have been unveiled; both at home and abroad.
This event will take place via Zoom and links will be sent out to attendees ahead of time. There will be a short audience Q&A at the end of the event. Tickets are available via Eventbrite here.
Pride Zine Workshop with Mel Galley: Queer Futurities – Saturday 6 June, 12-2pm. (€15/€13.50 IWC Members)
Join us for an afternoon imagining queer futures, discovering a mix of zine making and bookbinding techniques to create speculative pamphlets bringing together quotes, visual imagery and your own writing. The session is open to everyone with an interest in LGBTQIA+ histories and printed matter, with no experience in making or writing required. In a collaborative and supportive atmosphere we will cover a range of accessible techniques for creating your own publications, with all materials provided. Over the session we will approach queer futures as a place of possibilities, framed by thinking from writers, researchers and artists working with queer histories, speculative futures, community, place and hope.
Mel Galley is an early-career practitioner with a constellation-shaped practice weaving together research, making, teaching and writing. She can be found (often) fabricating in workshops, digging through archives, searching across databases, wandering within landscapes and bookbinding in the studio. Mel holds a Masters in Art and Research Collaboration from IADT, and has shown work across Ireland and the UK, including the LAB Gallery, BETA Festival and Signal Film and Media. Her artist books are held in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and (more importantly) on the walls and bookshelves of strangers and friends.
You are welcome to bring your own writing to work with. There will also be materials provided if you prefer to work with those on the day.
Booking via Eventbrite here.
Beyond Blooming: An Open Page Reading Night & Celebration of Queer Ireland – Tuesday 16 June, 6-8pm (Free with donation to Open Page Writing Group)
Capping off our Pride programme, Stoneybatter-based writers group Open Page Writers will host an open mic night in the Irish Writers Centre. The event will bring together queerness and Bloomsday in an impactful celebration of emerging Irish writing.
